File. “Festivals can no longer fail, their strength is increasingly the local and regional public”

Emmanuel Negier, politologue et spécialiste des festivals. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

Emmanuel Negrier, chercheur au CNRS et au CEPEL de Montpellier, spécialiste des festivals, évoque cet été 2024 où les turbulences ont été nombreuses pour le modèle économique de ces festivités.

Comment analysez-vous l’été des festivals en Occitanie ?

In the region, the diversity of situations is proven: between the Jazz à Sète festival which did not fill all its evenings, and in the same place, a little later for Fiesta Sète and a little earlier for Fernande which were a hit, it is day and night.

The causality of the Olympic Games is not an explanatory factor. On the other hand, the very particular year that Occitanie experienced in terms of tourism, down, yes. We can imagine a connection. And then, the headliners were available in fewer numbers. Some of the difficulties, officials attribute to a less attractive character.

The price of headliners continues to explode…

The fragility of the economic model of festivals is due to the fact that revenues are difficult to change: their great fear is to display entrance prices so expensive that it becomes prohibitive. The other aspect of revenues – drinks, food, merchandising – is not pushed either, because of the reactions of the public who play an active role in the positive or negative reputation of festivals.

The third inflexible revenue is the patronage/sponsorship pair which is stable or degraded. As for public subsidies, which are decreasing, there too the hope of an increase is utopian. On the other hand, artistic, technical and insurance costs have exploded. Headliners play an important role in renewing the audience… But they are very well-known and very expensive.

The future of festivals is darkening…

There is a strong tension, avoided by a significant turnout, or which will eventually pose a problem of survival, like Jazz in Marciac this year. The level of occupancy that allows to no longer lose money, the “break”, has increased: it has gone from 66% to 95% on average of filling the gauges in 20 years.

Festivals can no longer fail. The tension will not stop tomorrow, given the state of public finances, and given the artists' claims on fees.

Are there too many festivals ?

Those who answer “yes” have the most commercial vision of the event and have legitimate concerns about their economic model. But the world of festivals is 80% associative, non-profit. It has recent creations, some have disappeared: my hypothesis is that creations remain more important than cancellations and disappearances. We have mapped 1001 festivals in Occitanie in 2022.

Is the festival still fashionable??

We are completing the fifth study on the Eurockeennes of Belfort: the average age is increasing, 32 years, because the “old” remain but this festival is still as young. We have also noted a regionalization of the public that has increased from 13 to 23%, in the Territoire de Belfort. The share of the public that comes from far away is declining, the increase in the number of festivals means that you can see the artists you like closer to home.

As at the Rose festival in Toulouse, there is the territorial rooting, the real strength of a festival is increasingly its local and regional public.

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